shipping for money —

Amazon sets up system to trade on fan fiction

Amazon plans to start selling fan-written fiction based on the works of other authors and franchise creators, according to a press release sent out on Wednesday. Kindle Worlds will be a platform heavily regulated by Amazon itself and will only sell fan-fiction for which it has the rights-holders' explicit permission to do so.

Fan fiction has long existed at a murky copyright cross-section, where even fanfic-like works that have the strongest case for originality seem to anger rights-holders (see: The Wind Done Gone, a spinoff of Gone With the Wind that was targeted for copyright violation). There do exist cases where fan-fiction is legal, such as when it is sufficiently transformative or a parody. Even so, those arguments do little to settle the temper of authors who feel their creations are being tread upon.

Amazon plans to circumvent this issue by having a cadre of “World Licensors,” rights-holders who effectively give permission to Amazon and other writers to create and profit from fanfic. The launch list of licensors includes those of Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and Vampire Diaries.

Amazon must review and accept fanfic works for publication, but once it does, profits from the $0.99-$3.99 price range are split three ways: a 35 percent standard cut to the writer and an unspecified split of royalties to the licensor and Amazon itself. Things like slashfic and crossovers are not permitted under Amazon’s guidelines.

Casey Johnston
Casey Johnston is the former Culture Editor at Ars Technica, and now does the occasional freelance story. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Applied Physics. Twitter@caseyjohnston

This is an interesting idea, except that I've been getting fanfiction for free for so long that I don't really know that I'd ever want to pay for it. Maybe if there's some AU noncon darkfic PWP H/C crackfic on there.

As someone who has both published work and written fanfic, I'm definitely intrigued by this. Comparatively, I'm looking at this as something similar to what happens in the game industry with mods like Counterstrike. On the other hand, if I were to actually use this "Worlds" system, I'd leave the fics up available elsewhere for free (EDIT: Turns out you can't. One more strike against this). It should be an option, not an end all, and certainly not a means to a living, at least I would think not.

EDIT: After digging through their terms, I doubt I'd go for this, ever, even if they did actually get the licensing that would allow me to. There's just too many questions behind it. Still, it looks interesting.

Am I to assume Amazon is going to have to hire people to essentially read fan fiction and decide if it is good enough to be sold? That would be an interesting job.

Why. They don't do so for anything else that's self published.

In this case, since Amazon has to answer to the license holder, it's going to have to be read over to make sure there's no pornography or too much violence. I don't necessarily know if that will involve reading it over for quality, but I guess if they open it to read something like "The guy from the Vampire Diaries did like, a million awesome basketball dunks right in a crying baby's FACE" that might raise a red flag; I'd assume Amazon isn't taking any story offered them that meets the criteria, although who knows?

I don't see how it work with Fanfiction based of licensed characters/worlds. Fanfiction works because the Author isn't making any money per say. And the rights holders to any of the characters they are using see no financial benefit of tying to sue for money they can't get. Now amazon's putting gold in the pockets.

Gimme a GOOD universe to work in, like Niven's Known Space, and this could become mainstream rather than a timid step in the vague direction of right.

This is a well-known practice: publishers will commission (professional) writers in to produce stories set in a universe that someone else has fleshed out. It was quite common back when I still read lots of SF and fantasy, not sure how prevalent it is today. It was almost all B-grade stuff, and I'd imagine that the better fanfic writers are probably producing something superior.

[Edit]: Just remembered the canonical example of this: Thieves' World, created by Robert Asprin and licensed out to a bunch of other writers. Even though he got some big-name authors onboard the results were middling at best, but it was a boomtime for that sort of fantasy and the series lasted a decade. (Ew, just realised what the date on that says about me...)

Of course, these days the shelves are filled with 'media tie-in' pulp, but that hangs off a basis in film or TV.

I don't see how it work with Fanfiction based of licensed characters/worlds. Fanfiction works because the Author isn't making any money per say. And the rights holders to any of the characters they are using see no financial benefit of tying to sue for money they can't get. Now amazon's putting gold in the pockets.

....You realize that Amazon is only accepting fanfics for "worlds" that are directly licensed to them for that purpose by the rights holders, right? That's kinda the whole point of this program.

Am I to assume Amazon is going to have to hire people to essentially read fan fiction and decide if it is good enough to be sold? That would be an interesting job.

Why. They don't do so for anything else that's self published.

In this case, since Amazon has to answer to the license holder, it's going to have to be read over to make sure there's no pornography or too much violence. I don't necessarily know if that will involve reading it over for quality, but I guess if they open it to read something like "The guy from the Vampire Diaries did like, a million awesome basketball dunks right in a crying baby's FACE" that might raise a red flag; I'd assume Amazon isn't taking any story offered them that meets the criteria, although who knows?

Thanks a lot for stealing my idea for a Vampire Diary story. TVD is one of my favorite shows but oh god I don't want to read any fan fic dealing with it. I can already see the disaster that would ensue. A good 95 percent of it would either be turning characters gay or incest.

(well it sounded more like what you'd expect in the *average* fanfic to me! -- and yes I know the reference being made with #2 )

(and on a side side note that's actually on topic: yay. Licensing agreements like this are a great idea, and Amazon has the clout and platform to make them feasible. It's voluntary, but a lot of people would be happy to engage in something actually licensed like this)

Am I to assume Amazon is going to have to hire people to essentially read fan fiction and decide if it is good enough to be sold? That would be an interesting job.

Why. They don't do so for anything else that's self published.

In this case, since Amazon has to answer to the license holder, it's going to have to be read over to make sure there's no pornography or too much violence. I don't necessarily know if that will involve reading it over for quality, but I guess if they open it to read something like "The guy from the Vampire Diaries did like, a million awesome basketball dunks right in a crying baby's FACE" that might raise a red flag; I'd assume Amazon isn't taking any story offered them that meets the criteria, although who knows?

Thanks a lot for stealing my idea for a Vampire Diary story. TVD is one of my favorite shows but oh god I don't want to read any fan fic dealing with it. I can already see the disaster that would ensue. A good 95 percent of it would either be turning characters gay or incest.

Am I to assume Amazon is going to have to hire people to essentially read fan fiction and decide if it is good enough to be sold? That would be an interesting job.

Every publisher has people to read submissions and decide if they are good enough to be sold. This is nothing new; the only difference is the license.

And good on Amazon for doing this. It's nice to see the practice of fanfiction legitimized in some form.

A book publisher doing that makes a lot of sense, Amazon.com having people reading fanfiction from random freaks on the internet is entirely different.

Amazon is, if there is any human proof-reading involved, only going to check for flagrant violations of the terms of service or possibly hand things over to the property's owners to see if there's something "offensive" in it. Beyond that they'll probably rely on reader feedback. And there's a clause in the terms whereby Amazon and the copyright holders lay a pre-emptive claim to any idea you put in the fics submitted. There's some talk that this is basically farming out the work of brainstorming good ideas to eager amateurs on lousy terms. I think it's more likely there to cover their asses in case they eventually come up with something that strongly resembles the plot/new character/etc. which shows up in a fanfic first, so that there's no legal trouble over someone's claim that the TV station or publisher is ripping off the fic writer's ideas. With the volume of fic that many properties generate, this is actually a common problem if there's any suspicion that somebody on the staff might have come across fic and lifted a few ideas, even if that's unlikely. For certain franchises that generate a lot of fanfiction, the official and professional creatives on the project are often told by management to avoid all fan content to prevent even the appearance of this and maintain a defense of ignorance, in case some fan decides that the latest installment in the series is "clearly" ripping off something they put in a slashfic three years ago. There's also the fact that Amazon is basically distributing the fanfics, and as such needs the rights involved in distribution and advertising or displaying content on the web.

And there's a clause in the terms whereby Amazon and the copyright holders lay a pre-emptive claim to any idea you put in the fics submitted. There's some talk that this is basically farming out the work of brainstorming good ideas to eager amateurs on lousy terms. I think it's more likely there to cover their asses in case they eventually come up with something that strongly resembles the plot/new character/etc. which shows up in a fanfic first, so that there's no legal trouble over someone's claim that the TV station or publisher is ripping off the fic writer's ideas.

With the volume of fic that many properties generate, this is actually a common problem if there's any suspicion that somebody on the staff might have come across fic and lifted a few ideas, even if that's unlikely. For certain franchises that generate a lot of fanfiction, the official and professional creatives on the project are often told by management to avoid all fan content to prevent even the appearance of this and maintain a defense of ignorance, in case some fan decides that the latest installment in the series is "clearly" ripping off something they put in a slashfic three years ago. There's also the fact that Amazon is basically distributing the fanfics, and as such needs the rights involved in distribution and advertising or displaying content on the web

This is exactly why this language is there. This is an actual huge issue in the industry where story ideas that where sent in without permission are not even opened in order to avoid any potential lawsuits. After you establish the characters and settings there just is not all that many plots that will not be fairly obvious from that point forward.

I know 50 shades was able to escape the Ghetto but lets be real here how many properties actually want to be associated with bad S and M. I am honestly surprised that Amazon is taking this on and anyone let alone in production IP is going along with it. Hell TVD fan fic was a joke on the Good Wife this season. I can only imagine that TVD nearly 99.999 percent of the fanfic involves expected sex scenes.

Hell, just about any professional writer working in an established franchise is basically a fanfic author; just one with editorial oversight in exchange for a paycheck. DC's New 52 certainly makes more sense if you think of it as fanfiction with a lot of money behind it.